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Blaze
Blaze is a Ranged Warrior hero from the StarCraft universe, based on the Firebat Unit. He is a ranged Tank who specializes in initiating fights and dealing area damage by spreading his flames. Background Miles Lewis's infatuation with fire began in his childhood. Later in life, he had the opportunity to join Raynor's Raiders and fight for the future of the Terran Dominion. He hesitated, but but when he learned he could become a firebat, that sealed the deal. His tendency for pyromania earned him the nickname "Blaze". After the fall of Arcturus Mengsk, Lewis joined the Dominion Armed Forces. He heard of the disappearance of Jim Raynor after the End War, and wondered what happened to his former commander. Firebats are "armored assault troopers," often attached to provide support for marine squads. Particularly devastating in close quarters combat, they're typically armed with dual arm-mounted flame throwers and wear heat-resistant fireproof armor similar to those used by marines, although heavier. As with marines, many firebats are recruited or conscripted from "culturally challenged" persons. Such individuals undergo neural resocialization and receive aggression inhibitor implants as part of their training. Firebats are almost exclusively composed of resocialized criminals and psychotic pyromaniacs. During the reign of the Confederacy, firebats were infamous for being high-risk, unstable individuals, and older personnel manuals recommended the exclusive use of resocs or pyromaniacs for firebat duty. Still, volunteers are not unheard of: in the Confederate Marine Corps, an individual had to have a PEB (Preferred Experience Base) of at least three months combat experience to become a firebat. The Terran Dominion continues the use of firebats. Its personnel manualsclaim that its firebats are "stable, reliable soldiers." Gameplay Summary Blaze is a versatile Warrior capable of dishing a decent amount of sustained damage, as well having powerful area of denial abilities that allows him to lay carpets of crowd control. He is unique as he can self-heal by using a combination the skills and . Overall, Blaze performs exceptionally well in maps with tight enclosed spaces, or when defending stationary objectives. His flexibility allows him to fit into most team compositions, and can either work as a main tank or as a secondary Warrior to fulfill a bruiser-oriented role. Strengths *Has a very high base health. *Effective waveclear and area of effect damage. *Powerful area of denial and crowd control abilities. *Versatile kit, providing sustain and utility. *Basic Attacks deal 100% area damage. *Can be built as either a main tank or a bruiser. *Excels at defending stationary objectives. *Has access to an entire tier of "stimpack" talents at level 1, that allows Blaze to gain various effects when activated. * is a decent poke tool and has low cooldown, making it very spammable. * covers good range and offers a powerful slow effect, and deals decent damage when ignited by Flame Stream. Blaze will heal himself when standing over the ignited oil (about 14% of his maximum health). * covers a long range and has a area of effect stun if he collides with an enemy. Since it is a skillshot, it can be used either for engaging or retreating. * grants armor and damage, and its cooldown can be reduced by hitting enemy Heroes with Flame Stream. * allows to avoid otherwise guaranteed damage, such as targeted Heroic Abilities like Kael'thas' and Nova's . **The Bunker is classified as "summon", therefore is immune to Hero-only abilities (such as Chromie's ), as well talents that affect only Heroes (i.e. ). * covers a huge radius, and its damage and slow is increased the longer it is charged. Weaknesses *Has a smaller figure than most tanks, making bodyblocking less effective compared to someone like Diablo or ETC. *Lack of displacement abilities. *Poor single target damage. *Not very effective stutter-stepping. *Lack of burst damage. *All his Abilties are skillshots. *Telegraphed abilities and predictable playstyle. *Very susceptible to kite. *Igniting with removes the slow effect (unless is picked at level 4). **In addition, he can only self-heal by setting alight Oil Spill. *Has no mobility if is on cooldown. * has a very long cooldown. * is not very effective unless fully charged. Abilities Traits Heroic Abilities Talents Tier 1, Hero Level 1 Tier 2, Hero Level 4 Tier 3, Hero Level 7 Tier 4, Hero Level 10 Tier 5, Hero Level 13 Tier 6, Hero Level 16 Tier 7, Hero Level 20 Talent Builds *Oil Spill Build: focused on maximizing the effectiveness of , either when ignited by or not. Key talents include , which counteracts the greatest drawback of igniting Oil Spill, which is the removal the slow effect; , which allows to increase the uptime of Oil Spill; and , which allows Blaze to lay a carpet of oil on his way, which is great when engaging or disengaging. **This build is effective on most situations, although it is more effective when having another Warrior in the team. *Flame Stream Build: focused on maximizing the effectiveness of , turning it into a very powerful poking tool. **This build is mostly recommended when dealing against low mobility Heroes, since Flame Stream is very easy to kite and avoid. *Basic Attack Build: a very niche build that improves Blaze's PvE capacities, making him particularly strong at maps that requires to kill minions and monsters, such as Tomb of the Spider Queen, Infernal Shrines and Haunted Mines. Tips *Don't refrain from using to poke opponents. It has low cooldown, mana cost, and pierces opponents. **Additionally, each projectile damage are accounted on their own, meaning that hitting an opponent with both streams doubles the ability damage. ***This also counts for cooldown reduction, as well other Flame Stream related talents. *Try to use effectively and maximize the area of effect. Since it has 2 charges, it can be used to cover a large area. **Don't be afraid to use Oil Spill + Flame Stream solely for self-heal as it is quite impactful; it can heal about 14% of Blaze's maximum health (25% if is picked). **Oil Spill, by default, has 5 second duration, and when ignited by Flame Stream (or by ) it lasts for additional 2.5 seconds, meaning that with enough timing, it is possible to make it lasts for roughly 7.5 seconds. ***Ignited Oil Spills will also ignite any other Oil Spill that overlaps with it. This includes the ones generated by . * does not collide against minions, meaning Blaze can charge through them to hit enemy Heroes. **Unlike Diablo's , Jet Propulsion does not goes through obstacles such as walls. **The area of effect stun caused by Jet Propulsion is quite large, so make sure that enemies are relatively close to each other to maximize its stun properties. **An effective way to use Jet Propulsion is to combo it with Oil Spill and Flame Stream, in the following order: Oil Spill > Jet Propulsion > Flame Stream. *Save to use when surrounded by opponents, to maximize its damage and cooldown reduction. **This is specially useful if is picked. *Use to save allies from targeted skillshots, debuffs or to prevent otherwise lethal damage. **Don't be afraid to use it in order to secure objectives, such as the beacons in Braxis Holdout. **Players can enter and exit Bunker Drop at will. **Use Bunker Drop to body block opponents. **Ability cooldowns continue to roll normally while inside the Bunker. **The Flamethrower ability from the Bunker will NOT ignite Oil Spills, including the ones that can be generated by the level 20 upgrade, . * should be used when opponents are already under crowd control abilities, as it is fairly easy to avoid and interrupt. **By taking at level 1 (and completing it), it can be used right before Combustion to make Blaze unstoppable while channeling, preventing any form of interrupt. **Remember that Blaze cannot use any other abilities while Combustion is being channeled. *At level 13, Blaze has access to two talents that allows him to counter specific types of enemies: is very effective against Ability-based Heroes (such as Greymane, Alarak, Kerrigan, Sonya, etc.), while against Heroes that rely on Basic Attacks (such as Illidan, The Butcher, Zul'jin, Tracer, etc.). **It is important to note that Nanomachine Coating does NOT work when is ignited. *Despite not showing in the tooltip, the shield generated by spell damage reduction from has no duration, meaning Blaze can maintain it indefinitely until taking damage. Matchups Pairings Blaze's balanced kit and attributes allows him to work well on most team compositions. However, he shines when paired with Heroes that have some source of crowd control, allowing to maximize the slow effect of and the stun from . Arthas's very oriented crowd-control kit synergizes perfectly with Blaze. The combination of slow effects, stuns, attack speed reduction and damage-over-time and self-sustain create a deadly frontline. Kerrigan's ganking potential shines with Blaze's various ways to intercept his opponents, specially when he uses . Malfurion's effective heal-over-time, combined with his , greatly complements Blaze's ability to disrupt opponents and maintain presence in the battlefield. Effective against Effective foes Since all of Blaze's abilities are telegraphed skillshots, Heroes with high mobility can easily kite him and avoid his abilities altogether. In addition, Heroes with high crowd control skills can cancel two very important abilities: and . Furthermore, Blaze's limited mobility outside of Jet Propulsion combined with his naturally high health makes him easy target for Heroes capable of dealing health percentage damage. Leoric's lane presence and superior single target damage can deal problems to Blaze. In addition, since does not goes through obstacles and structures, Leoric can effectively trap him with a well place . Lunara can easily harass Blaze from afar and slowly cripple him, making any attempt to retaliate inneffective unless Blaze has allies to intercept her. Malthael vastly superior self-sustain and eye-watering damage to high health opponents can give Blaze a hard time during teamfights, specially if is on cooldown. Tracer's unmatched mobility makes almost impossible for Blaze to hit her with any of his Basic Abilities, meaning he is pretty much a sitting duck against her. Skins ;Veteran Firebat (base) ;Fel Reaver :After much experimentation, mo'arg engineers have succeeded in miniaturizing the fel reaver's design and fusing it with a captive sentient soul. The results are quite promising. :This skin is related to the Warcraft themed-skins. Features altered voice-over. Development A firebat hero was under consideration for inclusion by 2015.2015-12-28, BlizzCon 2015 Heroes of the Storm Deep Dive Panel Transcript. Blizzplanet, accessed on 2016-01-01 He was teased in a video2017-12-21, Heroes of the Storm: Need a Light?. YouTube, accessed on 2017-12-22 released in 2017, and is the first Hero to be released in 2018. Blaze's Combustion ultimate was once like a fire-version of the Death Blossom ability from Overwatch, shooting fire in a T-pose where players directed the streams with their mouse. The ability was revised.2018-03-28, Meet the Developers Turning StarCraft Units Into Heroes of the Storm. Red Bull Esports, accessed on 2018-03-30 Trivia * Blaze's dance is the Chris Farley's "Chippendale Dance". * Blaze's teaser video, "Need a Light?" was produced by Rocket Jump, a hybrid studio/production company led by Freddie Wong. Patch changes * References External links *At the StarCraft wiki Category:Human Category:Warrior Category:Heroes